Concepts of the Criminal Justice System in Susan Glaspells Story Jury of Her Peers - Research Paper Example

Concepts of the criminal justice system in Susan Glaspell’s story, “Jury of her peers” This story provides a fictionalized account of an execution mystery that the author covered as a journalist for the Des Moines Daily News. On the face of it, the story involves three men and two women participating in the investigation of the murder of John Wright. The victim was found strangled in his bed the previous day, with the prime suspect being his wife, Minnie. The three men had come to collect evidence, whereas the two women came to gather some of Minnie’s personal belongings since she was held at the county jail. The story presents a dilemma between the pursuit of law and the pursuit of justice. This dilemma emanates from the fact that the two women uncovered evidence that would convict Minnie of first-degree murder, but they chose to suppress it. Glaspell’s story raises a significant number of legal and ethical questions regarding justifications of homicide defense in domestic abuse cases. The questions mainly relate to some of the domestic abuse cases that were taking place approximately nine decades ago in America. The aforementioned dilemma informs Glaspell’s story. She is for the idea that the justice system should take the form of ‘peer,’ which disregards the legal and traditional formulations. In this case, empathy should overcome legalistic or traditional provisions of justice. The intention of the men in Glaspell’s story is to find and subject Wright’s killer to the appropriate punishment. However, the women choose to suppress the evidence implicating Wright’s wife due to empathy. The women perceive an isolated investigation into the Wright’s death would be unfair. Instead, they support the idea of investigating the life of the accused, which is presumably a factor that led to her action. Instead, the women make up their conclusion about the case even though it was just the beginning of the investigation. The story represents two views of the justice system. The first view is factual, which is based on the legal assessment of the specifics of the case, whereas the second viewpoint considers empathy as a viable component necessary for the pursuit of justice. For this reason, the underlying argument of the story is that punishments for symbolic crimes are a superior form of justice than the pursuit of the law. In this case, pursuing legal channels is based on the presentation of tangible evidence. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale act as Minnie’s rightful counsel, jury, and judge. The two women shift role to conclude that a different crime had been committed. Their perception differs from that of the men since they support the idea that justice has already prevailed. The men see Wright’s death as the beginning, but the women see Wright’s death as the closure of their investigation. The women consider that the real justice will only take place when they protect Minnie from the law. The women consider Minnie as their peer, and for this reason, they have to seek justice for her. This reasoning contradicts the thinking by the men, who are naturally seeking justice for their peer, Mr. Wright. The only option they have to realize their objective is to use the law on the women. Ben-Zvi’s assessment of Glaspell’s story in relation to the historical case indicates that issues related to the innocence or guilt of the accused moves beyond a single individual. Ben-Zvi suggests that this reasoning emanates from some of Glaspell’s alterations since she changes the venue of the trial (Ben-Zvi 154). Glaspell positions Minnie’s trail as taking place in her kitchen instead of the courtroom. For this reason, the author provides the readers with a composite picture of Minnie Wright’s life as well as the other women involved (Ben-Zvi 154). However, an individual might be right for assuming that Wright’s death releases Minnie out of loneliness and a cheerless life. Mrs. Hale supports this assumption by admitting that she did not visit since Minnie’s house was so cheerless and lonesome (Glaspell np). As the women were waiting in the kitchen, they were curious about the strange state of affairs in her kitchen, which was repeatedly belittled by the men. At one point, the men go out of the kitchen to the crime scene. As they were leaving, they informed the two women to look out for a motive that could lead to the determination of Minnie’s motive. This situation resulted in the questioning of whether the women could identify a clue if they encounter it (Glaspell np). The irony of this joke is obvious since the men failed to recognize the clue, which was the strewed kitchen. It is possible to assume that the men are not suited to pass judgment on the woman. They men are not reliable since they cannot determine the nature of the committed crime. Consequently, they should not identify the perpetrator of the offense. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter agree that Minnie’s solitude is unbearable, and for this reason, it is a form of murder. In this case, they conclude that Mr. Wright committed the first crime by killing her through enforcing solitude on her wife. He strangled her wife’s spirit by isolating her mentally and physically from the group of women and for restricting her incommunicado. Treating his wife in such a manner influences the verdict of the two women, who act as the jury of their peer by finding Mr. Wright guilty of spiritually murdering Minnie. He destroyed his wife communicatively, creatively and provocatively, and through his death, he received his deserved justice. Glaspell’s story also raises questions regarding the justice of the law, as well as the proper enforcement of this form of justice. She seemingly proposes that the pursuit of justice does not relate to obeying the law, but it refers to the manner of passing judgment on the people violating it. A legal expectation is that individuals are legally entitled to trial by a jury comprising of a person’s peers. The notion of the “Jury of the peers” emanates from the Common Law. In this case, peers consist of individuals of the same class with the accused. Judgment by an individual’s peers cannot favor a person that has clearly violated the law. However, the jury, which comprised of the two women, chose not to take into account the weight of the evidence and arrive at a verdict that favors the defendant. There are a number of ironical issues evident in the story. It is ironic to indicate that the women were able to find the clues in some of the most mundane household items that are insignificant to men. Due to the weak intuition that the men possess, they do not consider the house as indicative of the characters of John and Minnie. They are not able to see beyond the cheerless home that elucidate Wright’s grim nature. Conversely, the dilapidated household furniture does not provide the men with a hint of the victim had penurious habits. Instead, their conclusion concerning the state of the house is that Minnie is a lazy housekeeper. They cannot predict that the nature of the household indicates that Minnie was under a lot of stress. Glaspell adeptly shows that the men and women look at the house differently. The men are looking for evidence they could use to convict the suspect. Conversely, the women come upon trifles that are inclusive of a disordered house, a strangled canary, and an uneven quilting pattern. Stumbling across these features in the house influenced them to conclude that the details are by themselves indicative of Minnie’s motivations to kill his husband. The two women converse openly about Mr. Wiley’s authoritative and abusive character, after which they openly sympathize with the suspect’s desperate act. Glaspell creates a courtroom in the farmstead instead of the traditional courts, to which she identifies the two women as the jurors who conclude that Minnie is not guilty. They base their judgment on mere compassion and humanity instead of using legal measures. They also decide that they will not reveal the evidence that they stumble upon to the men in the crime scene since they respect the Minnie’s toleration of the abuses hurled onto her in her life. Works cited Ben-Zvi, Linda. Murder, She Wrote: The Genesis of Susan Glaspells Trifles. Theatre Journal 44.2 (1992):141-62. Glaspell, Susan. A jury of her peers. 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